The High Cost Of Becoming A Vet
7 years ago
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Stories from the ER veterinarian world
DISCLAIMER
Any similarity between my stories and any person or animal, living or dead, is strictly a coincidence. Names, breeds, sexes, and details of the stories have been changed to protect the guilty and innocent alike.
About Me
- The Homeless Parrot
- I am an emergency veterinarian in North Carolina. Despite the crazy people I deal with, the awful cases of injured and sick animals, and the overall stress of emergency work, I absolutely love what I do. Happily married since I was 20, I have a wonderful husband who has a PhD in Mathematics, and a daughter around whom our world currently revolves. We also have a zoo living in our house that can be alternately wonderful and maddening. There are cats, parrots, and a dog who is very low on the totem pole. Our days are never dull and we are learning to balance the demands of work and family. If you'd like to contact me: homelessparrot@gmail.com
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Medical terminology
- Azotemia - elevation in kidney enzymes (BUN and creatinine) indicating dehydration, kidney failure, or urinary obstruction
- Lactate - a salt/ester of lactic acid that is produced as energy for a cell when oxygen levels are low. In critically ill animals, elevated lactate can be an indicator of inadequate blood flow to organs (perfusion), decreased delivery of oxygen, and/or decreased oxygen uptake. Values > 6-7 are usually considered to be poor prognostic indicators for survival.
- GI sloughing: when the cells lining the GI tract die (can be secondary to MANY things, including heatstroke) with resulting bloody diarrhea, bacterial translocation into the bloodstream and sepsis
- TTJ: transfer to jesus: code for when an animal needs to be euthanized or die
- DIC: disseminated intravascular coagulation: a very, very bad thing - when the hemostatic system gets out of whack, and clots start forming in the blood vessels until all clotting factors are wasted. once those are gone, internal hemorrhage ensues, followed by death, usually. also known as "death is coming"
- Pleural effusion - fluid contained in the pleural space (chest) - this is not the same as fluid in the lungs (see pulm edema) - in cats can be caused by infection in the chest, heart failure, cancer, FIP, feline leukemia, FIV, and in some cases, the cause is never found (idiopathic)
- Anisocoria - unequal pupil size (related to any number of causes including brain damage/head trauma)
- Laterally recumbent - lying on side, unable to rise
- Hyperglycemia - elevated blood glucose
- Hyperkalemia: elevated blood potassium - a life-threatening condition related to several disorders (kidney failure, antifreeze toxicity, urethral obstruction...etc)
- Sepsis - refers to a bacterial infection in the bloodstream or body tissues. This is a very broad term covering the presence of many types of microscopic disease-causing organisms.
- Nephrectomy - kidney removal
- Splenectomy - removal of spleen
- Pulmonary edema - condition in which fluid accumulates in the lungs, usually because the heart's left ventricle does not pump adequately ( can be caused by heart failure, electrocution, drowning, too many IV fluids, to name a few)
- Tick borne diseases - any of a myriad of diseases transmitted by ticks - including but not limited to Rocky Mtn Spotted fever, Lyme disease, Ehrlichia
- Fine needle aspirate - A method of sampling in which a needle is used to suck in cells or tissue bits for diagnoses (good for diagnosing masses/lumps)
- Blood glucose - The principal sugar produced by the body from food–especially carbohydrates, but also from proteins and fats; glucose is the body's major source of energy, is transported to cells via the circulation and used by cells in the presence of insulin (normal range in a dog/cat is 75-100)
- PCV - packed cell volume - the volume of packed red cells in milliliters per 100 ml of blood (normal range 35-45)
Diseases I see/treat frequently
- Dystocia - difficulty birthing. May be responsive to oxytocin administration (Pitocin, as in people) but may require c-section.
- DKA - diabetic ketoacidosis: the extreme end of the diabetic scale. A patient that is diabetic can develop DKA when other diseases make the blood glucose hard to regulate. Other diseases that are commonly associated include urinary tract infection, pancreatitis, pyometra, skin infection, and cancer. In DKA, the body starts metabolizing fat and producing acids that cause a drop in blood pH, nausea, weakness, severe dehydration, electrolyte derangments, and death.
- DCM - dilated cardiomyopathy: an idiopathic (cause unknown) cardiac disease in which the heart chambers become very thin/dilated, and cardiac output drops radically. Causes arrhythmias, tachycardia, and sudden death. Seen in large breed dogs like Dobermans, Great Danes, etc.
- Lymphoma - cancer of the white blood cells, the most common and treatable form of cancer in dogs
- Blocked cat - slang term for a male cat with a plug of mucus and crystals obstructing the urethra (fairly common in male cats) definitely a life-threatening because urine can't get out of the body! If present long enough, causes shock, acute renal failure, hyperkalemia (elevated potassium), coma, and death. Symptoms include straining in the litterbox, yowling while trying to urinate, producing small, bloody drops of urine (also symptoms of feline cystitis, a non-lethal condition)
- GDV - stands for gastric-dilatation and volvulus - a condition of large breed, deep-chested dogs (usually) in which the stomach rotates 180 degrees on its axis and thus - nothing can enter or leave, considered the "mother of all emergencies" - it warrants immediate surgery and carries a guarded prognosis
- IMHA - immune-mediated hemolytic anemia. A disease in which the immune system attacks the red blood cells and destroys them. It causes profound anemia and is life-threatening. Causes are primary (no known cause) and secondary ( tick borne disease, cancer, and heavy metal intoxication). Treatment is immunosuppression with drugs primarily. Prognosis is guarded at best.
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6 comments:
woot woot!
Have FUN, FUN and more FUN..
Hope you're having fun! I hope you won't be checking this until you get back, but wanted to leave a question/comment while I was thinking about it.
Someone sent me a link to keeping wild animals as pets -- according to this link, 10-15K tigers are kept as pets or in private facilities with only 5k left in the wild!
To try to make a long story short, we were then talking about how you transport your pet tiger to the vet. I responded that the tiger probably doesn't go to a vet (this is for people keeping them in their homes/apartments not for zoo tigers, obv.)
My friend responded that if you're dropping $10k+ on a tiger, you take it to the vet.
I know how hard it is to find a qualified vet for birds, and they are far less exotic than tigers! Anyway, I thought I would ask your opinion -- how hard would it be to find a vet that would work on a tiger? If they're illegal in the jurisdiction, would you have to report them? What would you do if someone brought a tiger to be seen?
Anyway, sorry for the super long comment, but am curious!
Wow Mary, those are many different questions. Ok:
1) The veterinarians at my university treated big cats - both rescue/rehab cats and PET cats. I have a blood-curdingly story about a cougar maybe I'll tell sometime. I would expect that to find a COMPETENT veterinarian to work on a tiger, one would need to live near a large zoo or university with a zoo vet on staff. You could probably find a quack anywhere willing to "play" with a tiger i.e. "treat" it - but that is speculation.
2) As for legalities, those depend on state. Most states require a permit, but from the limited experience I have, anyone can basically obtain a permit. People also obtain them by illegal means, just like anything else.
3) As to what I would do...that's a hard question. We treated illegal species of birds in vet school all the time. Quaker parakeets (also known as monk parakeets) are illegal in many states. Ferrets are illegal in California. Most vets just treat them and say nothing. Those pets do not present a threat to human life, although they do (arguably) present an agricultural threat. A tiger is another story.
If someone brought me a tiger, I would look at several factors: 1) could I SAFELY treat it? Would my technicians be at any risk? If so, absolutely not. I would also ask if there was anyone else within a reasonable distance that could treat the animal better than myself? If so, then no. I would also assess how sick the animal was. If it was a dying tiger, and it could be safely handled (i.e. we could safely heavily sedate it) - then yes, I would try to help it.
As for reporting it, I guess it depends on the situation. We have treated tiger cubs from a local rescue/sanctuary - but they were obtained legally. If I saw a personal tiger, it would be totally dependent on the people and the situation.
And yes, people do bring their "pet" big cats to the vet. We saw a lot of servals at UT. Most of them were suffering terrible metabolic bone disease because the owners fed them straight meat diets...so they had multiple fractures in multiple limbs. Tragic and wrong on so many levels. We also saw a few cougar pets (seriously, the story behind one of those is just...OMFG). Also fennec foxes for pets (ridiculously cute but not good pets). People often have more money than sense. Or no money, no sense, and a credit card.
Hope that was clear as mud.
PS that should be blood-curdling.
Thanks so much for the detailed response. Very interesting!
A friend of mine with a quaker was thinking of moving to CA, and she'd been told that many vets look the other way, and some will even call it something like a green parakeet -- but as you said, much different than a large cat.
Thanks again!
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